The Corn Maize

This past weekend we headed to Kersey Valley for some fall family fun! We went with my brother and his family to test out the "Maize Adventure", despite my absolute fear of corn fields. There's just something so creepy about them! But it was daylight and I had my two boys to keep me safe, so I pushed through it.

Ryan, Zoe and Hayden at the Maize.

We started our journey at the beginning after a briefing from the guide. We were to follow the maze to find check points, and to play a corn-themed game of Clue to find out who took Farmer Joe!

We had a good time running around and finding the right way to go...facilitated by Jay's navigational skills (and the picture of the map he took with his cell phone).

Family photo in the Maize!

Ryan being silly with his corn.

After the Maize, we headed over to the "giant pillow" for the kids to jump. Erin took Ryan & Zoe and Jay took Hayden for a round of jumping, and they had a blast! After a few minutes, Hayden felt comfortable enough to jump on his own. Probably my favorite picture of the day is of Jay and Hayden, after Hayden fell down but Jay kept jumping :-)

Carving pumpkins

This year we decided Hayden was old enough to enjoy and appreciate the family art of carving pumpkins. I of course serve as the photographer for events like this since I've a) never ACTUALLY carved a pumpkin myself; b) don't like to get my hands dirty; and c) If I don't serve as the photog, Jay either won't, or he'll take all the pics in "action" mode. No thank you.

He was so excited to help daddy with the tools!

While he was terribly curious about what was in there and what daddy was doing, he had NO interest in helping when he realized he would get his hands dirty. That kid is all boy until he gets his hands dirty and then he turns into his mother. Upside? He LOVES to wash his hands.

Helping daddy "finish" up. Aka, he did a lot of wandering around the deck while Jay carved.

Our spooky jack-o-lantern, lit up and ready for Halloween!

Happy 7th Birthday, Ryan!

I can't believe he's 7! Ryan celebrated his birthday at Safari Nation with friends, family, a zip line, tons of presents and a basketball cake & cupcakes. Hayden had an absolute blast and it was hard to tear him away from the guns that shot the Nerf balls. The grown ups had a pretty good time, too!

This cake was awesome!

He had the best time gathering and shooting.

Make a wish!

I was really surprised at this, because it involved getting his hands dirty but he really enjoyed it!

He was a champ at opening the presents.

What was great about Safari Nation was that after the party, we could still stay and jump. Hayden jumped and played forever, and we only convinced him to leave by telling him we'd go play at Ryan and Zoe's house. He loves his cousins :-)

Crock Pot Macaroni & Cheese

I make two versions of mac 'n cheese in the crock pot, but this is the one I did yesterday. It requires zero maintenance and the other needs a stir here and there so I tossed it in before we left for the corn maze.

16 oz elbows, cooked and drained.

Spray a crock pot (mine is 4.5 qt) with cooking spray. Add cooked macaroni, plus one half stick of butter (chopped) and 2 cups shredded cheddar, and salt and pepper. Mix well.

To the crock pot add (but don't stir) 2 beaten eggs, 1 large can evaporated milk, 2 cups of milk. Don't stir! Sprinkle with 1 more cup of cheese (seriously Val, sorry!) and cook on low for 2 hours. Perfect for a family gathering with kids that won't eat anything else on the table.

Per request...

Some of my friends needs new recipes, so I promised to start posting anything fun, or even not fun but quick-and-easy, to mix it up!

FYI, these recipes go against everything Valerie blogs at "Busy Mom Gets Fit"...maybe my recipes will change after the baby is born and I try to regain some semblance of my old body :-)

Sausage Dip

1 lb sausage (hot for the spicy friends, I like extra sage)
2 8oz blocks cream cheese, softened
1 can Rotel (I use regular, you can adjust the spice for your crowd) (I also drain but leave some of the juice for spice)

Brown, crumble and drain sausage. Add softenened cream cheese and rotel, stir until combined. Serve with tortilla chips!

Book worm

Normally my Hayden posts are about his silly statements and sweet words. Today I'm having a pretty proud momma moment :-)

I usually drop him off at 7:15 at his daycare, in order to give me enough time to get to work. Today, I had a doctor's appointment at 8:45 so I was able to take him in just a bit later. Early time is a little crazy at school, because all the kids are in one room until all the teachers get there to take them to their respective rooms. Some mornings, he has a hard time with mom leaving and needs a few extra snuggles to get adjusted so early. Today, his teacher was there so we walked down to his classroom.

We walked in and it was reading time, so there were several books on the table for the kids to choose from. Hayden saw the books, and immediately dropped my hand and headed to a seat. He calmly picked a book, sat in his seat and opened the book to start "reading". He never even noticed that I was still there! Sometimes it's tricky, signing him in and dropping off his jacket before he can try to escape out the door with me. But today, he was just too excited to read to even notice. Such a great moment, I was always a reader growing up and hoped my kids would be too. Lately, he wants to sleep with a book and I can't find a good reason to discourage it. What a little man he's becoming!

Here comes the bride!

We had two weddings to attend this month, one of which was Hayden's very first! Typically I don't believe in kids under 5 at weddings, but this one was an outdoor event that was casual so we took him along. Sarah and Ben got married on October 1st in a beautiful country setting. It was all of a sudden chilly, but the sun was bright and the air was crisp, and of course the bride was beautiful! Hayden was excited to go to the "special farm" to see Sarah, and got really excited when he saw her walking down the aisle. He was very good during the ceremony and expectedly antsy at the reception but overall he did really well.

                  A quiet moment after the ceremony...so sweet!
The following weekend we traveled to Waynesville, NC sans Hayden for Ashley and Jason's wedding. Ashley (Watts) was one of my Salem friends and got married outside at the Waynesville Inn Country Club on a ceremonial green. We had a blast catching up with old Salem friends and with her family. And since we were childless (minus the one in my belly!) we got to relax and enjoy dinner (the food was great!) and dance and hang out without entertaining our wild toddler. It was a beautiful day in the North Carolina mountains that turned into a rather chilly evening but we had a great time. Jay was a hit on the dance floor and we grabbed a quick brunch with friends before heading back to Greensboro.

 They did it! Ashley and Jason walk back down the aisle as Mr. & Mrs. Bannister.

                               Salem C'04, Lily Godbold and baby-Rogers-to-be-named-later-C'34.

A visit from the President

Last week, President Barack Obama visited the GTCC campus. We were allotted a certain number of tickets for staff to be able to attend, and I got to go! Regardless of political views, I think it's important to respect the office of the President, and to be informed on all sides when it comes to politics. He spoke on his plan to create jobs and what it means for the state of North Carolina, and even gave the BBQ a little shout out (as long as we promised not to tell Michelle). I was disappointed that more students weren't able to attend, and surprised he didn't use the platform to speak on the new student loan options, but it was an amazing experience nonetheless!

Some of my coworkers and myself, excited to be there!

President Obama, speaking to the crowd. What an experience! Security was tight, lines were long and the message was short, but well worth the wait. Excited to vote in this year's non-Presidential election! In fact, just yesterday I updated my voter registration to reflect my new address. If you don't vote, don't expect to be heard!

House pics: The Before Edition

Our house has a really interesting layout. The first floor has the living room, eat-in kitchen, dining room, half bath, exit to the deck, entrance from the front door and exit to the garage. Simple. The second floor is actually sort of a floor and a half, thanks to the placement on a hill. The flight up stairs leads you to the master bedroom (with master bath), guest bedroom and laundry nook. Then another small half flight of stairs takes you up to Hayden's room, baby's room and their bathroom, along with a linen closet. This picture is from the baby's room looking down the half flight of stairs, with the master bedroom on the right and one of TOO MANY windows to clean on the left. Hayden LOVES stairs so he's super excited to be at the top of them all so he can boom-boom down them.

I love our guest bedroom. It's actually bigger than the master in some ways, but will double as our office as well. Because of the layout, we have a ton of crawl space upstairs that can be accessed through three small doors (house-elf sized) in the guest room. Our first three nights in the house, we actually slept in the guest room because it was the easiest room to set up. We had the bed, the tv, the end tables over in a flash and Jay set them up so we could sleep. We enjoyed a little tv in bed (which we haven't done since Germany!) and woke up to sun streaming in from that little half-moon window.

Our master bath has a separate tub and shower, which I adore. I am a huge bubble bath fan and though I can't take hot ones right now, I'm excited to use that tub! We also have double sinks, which is AWESOME. Jay and I are rarely getting ready at the same time except on weekends, but it's nice to be putting my makeup on at my sink while he's brushing his teeth at his, and not having to climb all over each other and drip water everywhere. The toilet is actually under repair right now, but I'm pumped to be able to walk a few short lit-by-nightlight feet in the middle of the night thanks to a little lady that loves to sit on my bladder. The walk-in closets are across from each other as you walk into the master, which means for the first time since we've lived together (2006) Jay will have his clothes in the same room as our bedroom!

This picture is from the hallway between the master and guest bedrooms, so you can get a better idea of the split second floor. You can see down into our living room, which has a gas fireplace (that needs to be revamped totally) and a ceiling fan (that currently serves its purpose but will be replaced when we have just a bunch of money sitting around, ha!). I realized I don't have a full-on picture of the living room except maybe on my phone. But you get the idea. We have hardwoods in the living room and the entry way, and mounted the flat screen on the nice long wall perpendicular to the fireplace. True to form, Jay set up the living room first (I think the NFL Pass from Direct TV *may* have been  a contributing factor) with the couches, steam cleaned rug, tv and dvds. We have a place to sit, even though the walls are still mostly bare. And he steamed the floors!

This is my formal dining room. I am so excited to have room for all my furniture! It is currently taped off in blue so Jay can paint it the "Fabulous Red" that he picked out. Monique is passing along a lovely light fixture to remove the 1990's gold and glass that resides there now. And all the furniture is placed smack in the middle of the floor to allow for painting, which makes meal time an adventure! I can't wait to see my new walls, my old Salem plates up on said new walls, and all of my pottery and china where it belongs, stored safely behind antique doors!

Ah, the kitchen. My sanctuary. The house had an oven (though missing the racks) and a dishwasher (ancient, but then again I got my first dishwasher in February) when we bought it. We knew we'd need a fridge and microwave so we shopped around. Lucky for us, Best Buy had a great deal on a whole kitchen worth of appliances (fridge, stove, microwave and dishwasher) and we were planning to replace the old ones so we bought the whole shebang. We eventually want new cabinets and countertops, but for now I'm REALLY enjoying my side-by-side fridge.

The bedrooms are kind of standard, other than the guest room, so I'll post pics when the furniture is in place and we have some things on the wall. Sort of our intermediate-after pictures. But for now, we're still moving (since we don't have to be out of the old place until November 15th) and painting and shuffling and figuring out where everything goes. But we're on our way!

A month of birthdays

In our family, things tend to happen in clusters. This month, it's birthdays!

Eric turned 32 on October 13th; wow, old! This is the six months of the year that he's three years older than me and not two, so I like to give him a hard time.

Jay turned 27 on October 19th. Hayden and I baked him a chocolate cake, picked up a dvd of one of his favorite shows...and oh yeah, I bought him a house. I told him it's only fair, since I get to celebrate my birthday with a newborn baby girl (unless she's late!). We went out to dinner at Village Tavern to celebrate, and he had a Friday night off for the first time since January. Perfect!

Ryan turned 7 years old on October 24th. So strange to me that seven whole years have gone by since I became an aunt. What a fun little guy he's turned out to be. We'll be celebrating his birthday this weekend, but Hayden got REALLY excited to call him and tell him "Happy Birthday" on Monday. He loves his cousins and since Ryan is an older boy that plays football and basketball, I'm pretty sure Hayden idolizes him.

We round out the month with Halloween and have a few minutes to catch our breath before Hayden's birthday and Thanksgiving!

Home sweet home: A marathon, not a sprint

Well. It wasn't an easy road, but we are homeowners! We started this journey in January, when we settled in back in NC and looked at our finances. We didn't want to pay rent when we could be paying a mortgage, but there are a few things that had to fall into place first. We wanted to pay off some debt, and of course, no lender is interested in giving 100k+ to two people that just started two brand new jobs. So we called a lender to find out what kind of timeline we were looking at, crunched the numbers and made some decisions. Despite Jay's veteran status, we weren't going to be able to use the benefit of his VA loan and his job also posed some roadblocks, along with the status of my job (since I was initially hired as a temp and three interviews later I'm finally a full time permanent employee). So we weighed our options.

Then we got an apartment. Logically, since we needed a place to live and see how much it cost to be civilians (albeit renters). After a few months, we reevaluated our situation and then gave ourselves a goal to shoot for. I told Jay I wouldn't look at houses a day before August 1st. This of course didn't deter him from looking at them online, driving past them on his way to work, ruling out neighborhoods due to traffic and school district, and staying in touch with our realtor on a weekly basis. August 1st came around, and he had 2 houses for us to look at. Great! We actually really liked some parts of both houses, and it was a good way for us to start figuring out what we "really" wanted versus what we liked on paper.

The next weekend, we had 7 or 9 houses to look at. In the heat of the summer, with a pregnant wife, and most of the houses being unoccupied (and therefore not cooled by central air), I'm pretty sure Jay was crazy. But he was SO determined to find us a house so we looked. We fell in love with one, only to find it to be under contract. It had everything on our list, AND a laundry chute. A laundry chute! I was both discouraged at the idea of losing this perfect house, and empowered to find OUR perfect house and not let it get away next time! We looked at 7-11 houses a weekend, every weekend. We were exhausted. We saw beautiful ones that were out of our price range, one terribly scary house that any realtor should be ashamed to list; we saw perfect houses with no yard for Hayden and Oscar; we saw beautiful yards with not enough bedrooms. We saw huge living rooms but tiny kitchens, move-in ready houses that offered us no first-time buyer woes (and that turned us off). Then one weekend I prepared to ask Jay if we could just take this weekend off, and not look at any houses. Please. For the love of God. Just let me rest on a Sunday! He said no, but at least the list was short and clustered together. I sighed a big sigh, put on my big girl panties and got in the car.

As luck should have it, we found it! Of course we did, because I didn't want to go look at houses. It had the right amount of bedrooms and bathrooms, running room for Oscar and Hayden, great location, good price and struck that balance between it's ready to move in with carpet and paint, but needs enough work to make it our own. We looked at it on Sunday, and after realizing it had just gone back on the market on Thursday, decided to put in our offer on Monday. We were a little hesitant, and wanted to know why it went under contract and then fell through. Our realtor assured us she would investigate, and did remind us 1) some people weren't like us, and hadn't thoroughly checked out their finances BEFORE putting in an offer and 2) we'd have a whole round of inspections to find out if it was a money pit.

I would love to say "fast forward to two weeks and we were all set!" but of course, that was not the case. While we were blessed with a great realtor, lender and favorable funding, we were plagued by an AWFUL listing agent and the ever popular FHA/Fannie Mae debacle, as the house was a foreclosure. Great for the buyer's wallet, but terrible on our sanity! Here came the weeks upon weeks of phone calls, faxes, emails, meetings, doing and re-doing and re-re-doing paperwork with one setback after another. The worst part in all this? There's NOTHING you can do about the selling agent, other than finding another house. That is, until the house is YOURS and then said selling agent can be reported to the state Realtor's board for her ethics, inconsistency, and just plain TERRIBLENESS. Believe it. She wasn't registered with the BBB, she's her own boss so I couldn't call and complain to her boss, but I was not going to let it all slide. She was unprofessional and all around incorrect on most of the things she did, not to mention rude. I have thought about "liking" her terrible page on Facebook just to put her on blast, but I like the sneak attack of a state audit instead.

Despite her best efforts to the contrary, we closed on our house October 12th. Since she had also not sent the deed over to the attorney, that meant it couldn't be registered and we couldn't actually get the keys until Friday, Oct 14th after the deed was registered...but it was ours! We are officially homeowners, in debt for 30 years, and we couldn't be more excited about it :-)

Oh, you wanted a picture of the outside? No can do. Being a foreclosure, the previous owners took everything that wasn't bolted down...or in this case, WAS bolted down...including the shutters. So until Jay puts up my new shutters, ya gets nothin'. It's kind of like that time I saw a Looney Tunes cartoon and Porky Pig was rudely awakened from sleep, only to hop out of bed to put his jacket and bow tie on. When I realized he was sleeping naked, I was disturbed for YEARS. So you shall not see my house naked :-)

Blogging fail

Well. There hasn't been much time for blogging. The short of it...we bought a house, Hayden is more man-child and less toddler every day, Jay is doing great in school and baby girl is healthy and well! Some friends got married, some fun friends visited, and I saw the President.

We cut off our internet in anticipation of the move, so I hope to be back up and blogging with pics soon!

The sweetest boy

This past weekend, I spent most of the latter part in the recliner with a heating pad on my back. When I overdo it, my back is the first part of my body to remind me to wear comfortable shoes and remember I'm pregnant! I love chasing Hayden around but end up paying dearly for it.

Last night, I was laying on the couch watching tv with Hayden when he got up. He walked over to the recliner and stopped. He then walked around it and unplugged my heating pad. He brought it to the couch, made me sit up, placed it under my back and made me lay back down on it.

"Make it feel better mommy, it be okay,"  he said.

What a sweet and generous child I have to want to help, and to want to make sure mommy is okay!

Hoarder in the making

Hayden has taken to sneaking food into his room at odd times of the day and night. Yesterday I went to get him out of bed for school and noticed an inconspicuous spot on his sheets. It baffled me briefly, until I saw a small bowl of baked beans at the foot of his bed. Yes, baked beans. We had them with our hot dogs for lunch on Sunday and I put the leftovers in one of Hayden's bowls since he's a big fan of them. Apparently, since at some point he procured them from the frige and proceeded to eat them whilst he was supposed to be sleeping.

Jay went into his room when he woke up in the middle of the night this weekend, and saw him chewing. He said, "Hayden what do you have?" to which Hayden replied, "Sheese". Sure enough, he hadn't finished his string cheese from earlier and decided to stash it for later.

I *swear* we feed him!